梅原 裕一郎

1. Amezaiku ( November / December 2017 issue )

The basic process of amezaiku is packed. It seems to be a “rabbit”, so this time I made a rabbit this time. At first, the store staff showed me a model, and it looked very easy to make. When I tried it, it was quite difficult… I made it twice as practise, but first of all, the candy was hot.

After being kneaded, it was handed over to the store staff, and then cuts were made in the candy with scissors. The second time, I thought it wouldn’t turn out to be a very pretty rabbit in the end, so I stretched out the rabbit’s neck and played around with it (laughs). It was especially difficult before.

It’s a leg. I made it three times, and I feel like it didn’t go well all three times. Sometimes there are leftover candy in the rabbit’s stomach, and sometimes it’s too sweet to cut and its legs are shorter. I couldn’t make a beautiful leg like the sample on the hind legs. The sample rabbit’s thighs were made realistically, and I once again felt that it was difficult.

Maybe I’m bad at modelling animals… if you make it by chance. It had a too long torso, and I had a hard time getting the shape right. It is useless if you do not proceed while imagining the completed drawing. By the way, I crunched up the candy I made at home and ate it (laughs). It was delicious.

2. DIY (January / February 2018 issue)

I can’t say it’s DIY, but I used to buy floor tiles online and spend a whole day laying them out because I was worried that the floor was light beige and didn’t match the furniture. It’s already hard to cut to fit the protruding parts of the room. This time, I made a chair, but when it came to assembling it, I could not do it by myself. The finished chair isn’t big enough for me to sit on, so I’m thinking of using it to place the traces of the banyan tree, a foliage plant. I thought DIY would be difficult unless someone likes to make something or has the skills to make something proper. Speaking of assembly, it’s not DIY, but it was really hard when I assembled a semi-double bed by myself (laughs). Even though the room was small, I made it a limitless space where I couldn’t even turn around. This time, I wore a jumpsuit during the shooting, but I was happy because I thought it was cool to see Eita-san wearing a jumpsuit in the drama “Horo Ekimae Tada Benriken.”

DIY was popular at that time. I did woodworking like this for the first time in junior high school. It also hurt my back (laughs). I don’t do it myself, but my mother likes DIY, and I’ve seen her make columns to fit in small spaces, so I was familiar with it. As for me, I used to make wooden swords out of those DIY pieces (laughs).

3. Craft

First of all, I was surprised by the large number of leather colour options. With so many colours to choose from, it’s hard to imagine. I sewed five leather parts together, but at first I thought would be nice to use yellow leather as an accent colour, but in the end I ended up with black and brown, which I like. After choosing the colour for each part, I put letters on the leather inside the cover. I was thinking of calling it “UME 2018”, but in the end it became “UMEHARA 2018.” It was very difficult to sew.

It’s difficult to adjust the force, and it’s hard not to be too weak or too strong. But when I saw the finished product, I felt a sense of accomplishment. I would also like to recommend it to Souma Saitou-san, who said he likes how leather changes over time. I’ve read before, Momoko Sakura’s “Momo no Kanzume” and “That’s how it’s made,” and now I’m reading “Watakushi ga katarihajimeta kare wa,” by Shion Miura. I often read books by female authors such as Banana Yoshimoto and Hiromi Kawakami. It’s interesting that the sentences use words that men would not choose.

I sewed it by hand, but it was difficult to process the edges like blind stitches. The leather was hard, so my hands hurt. Personally, I like leather products, and I feel like I often choose leather for sofas. Natural leather is better because it lasts longer than synthetic leather. Even if there are wrinkles or scars, “I like it when it looks good.”